Anger mounts over Barclays ban on rooted Android phones

A problem which GoMo News identified quite a while back has finally sparked a rebellion amongst users of Barclays Bank in the UK. As we highlighted successfully in ‘Barclays sidelines rooted Android phones with Pingit‘, the British Bank prevents its users from running its two banking applications on Android handsets if they are ‘rooted’. The purpose of ‘rooting’ the handset is to enable you to change bits of the handset’s OS (firmware). The equivalent in the Apple iOS world is ‘jailbreaking’. As GoMo News has pointed out on numerous occasions, some of the most secure apps there are actually require a jailbroken handset. Activists now want Barclays customers to sign the petition against anti-rooting on the Barclays site here.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the app, Pingit is a mobile based funds transfer service which GoMo News regards as industry-leading technology.

The ban also applies to customers who attempt to use the UK Bank’s standard banking app – Barclays Mobile Banking.

The restriction has lead one Barclays Bank customer (and you can’t sign the petition unless you are one) to post a protest on the Bank’s own site under ‘Submit an idea’.

The post is entitled, ‘Allow users to use Barclays apps on rooted devices’ and has been submitted by A Huxtable. So far it has garnered just three votes.

However, one activist has asked for GoMo News’ support in trying to lift this illogical ban. He says, “Guys if you really want the app to work on rooted phones, please vote for this feature on Barclays site.”

He continues, “As far as I can see, if we got just 50 people to vote, it might be enough for them to think it’s a good idea!”

Of course, one user has already threatened to quit the ban which as a ploy we wouldn’t recommend.

What it needs is for more users to point out the reasons why users root their Android phones.

On the Barclays site, one customer says, “[I use] Titanium Backup which is the most comprehensive app on the market to perform a full backup of your device.”

The point here being that you can’t use Titanium Backup without rooting and if you root then your banking app stops working.

There are obviously plenty of other good examples. GoMo News itself uses avast! software’s mobile security app for Android.

And you can’t get the best out of avast!’s anti-theft capabilities unless you are actually running a ‘rooted’ Android phone.

So what’s needed is for more Barclays Bank customers to visit the web site here and sign the petition.

it used to be possible simply to rename SuperUser.apk to SprUsr.apk, but no longer.
if you’re smart enough to hide root from the barclay’s app, you are probably smart enough to protect your device even when rooted.